France could extend its state of emergency beyond 12 days, the prime minister has said, as officials identified one of the Paris terror attackers as Omar Ismael Mostefai, a 29-year-old Frenchman of Algerian origin, who had been flagged for links to Islamist radicalism.

Manuel Valls said the state of emergency, which gives sweeping investigating powers to police, could be extended. This would require a vote in parliament.

He said France would extend its action in Syria in the coming days to “hit, annihilate Daesh”, the name French officials use to describe Isis. He said France’s strategy in Syria would be debated in parliament in eight days time.

A Syrian passport — confirmed as being used in Greece last month — was found near one of the attackers close to France’s national stadium where three explosions occurred.

Isis issued a statement on Saturday saying “this is only the beginning of the storm” after French president François Hollande blamed the bloody attacks on the organisation in a televised address.

French interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve has laid out new security measures as part of the national state of emergency: police will be allowed to restrict circulation in some areas, perform house searches more easily, and shut down businesses such as concert halls and bars. Demonstrations will not be authorised in Paris until Thursday and security at railway stations and airports will be reinforced.

Events in Paris are unlikely to make the chance of a peaceful solution in Syria any easier, however, and are instead likely to play into the hands of hawks keen to ramp up military action and foreign supporters of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. Washington and its allies say Mr Assad’s brutality and connivance created Isis.

ISIS a US/UK Creation

The idea that Assad's brutality created ISIS is absurd. ISIS arose in the wake of the US taking out Saddam Hussein for no good reason.

A bit of honesty and self-assessment from the US would be a welcome event. But don't expect that to happen. The US never admits anything, but instead keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.

ZeroHedge posted a comic with these comments "The following cartoon best captures the idiocy of anyone actually believing a suicide bomber would have brought their actual passport to what they knew would be their last act on earth. Is bringing your own passport to an event that will be your last, really that crucial, especially when the passport is such a critical smoking gun?"

Well, yes, if the goal was to have the passport found. The issue here is not whether the passport was a fake, but rather if it was the method of entry for the terrorists. ISIS can spread more fear by purposely leaving such a passport.

I can easily see why they would want to leave their passport. Whether or not that passport provided entry to a terrorist remains to be seen.

ISIS stated it would use Syrian passports to infiltrate EU countries. That threat is certainly credible, isn't it?

Tensions are particularly fraught in Germany, where Chancellor Angela Merkel is already under fire from within her own centre-right grouping for her open stance on immigration.

Markus Söder, the Bavarian finance minister and a member of Ms Merkel’s CSU sister party, on Sunday called for more checks on the German border and said his southern border region would take matters into its own hands if Berlin did not do more.

Horst Seehofer, the Bavarian prime minister, on Sunday called for federal police to impose controls on all border crossings with Austria.

Political leaders in Poland and Slovakia warned that the influx of migrants into Europe posed security risks, with the incoming rightwing government in Warsaw insisting it was no longer willing to accept refugees under a recently agreed EU policy to relocate some of the thousands of migrants arriving in Greece and Italy across the bloc.

“Everyone must now assess how great a mistake is to try to settle a large Muslim immigrant community in Poland,” said Antoni Macierewicz, defence minister in the incoming Law and Justice party government.

Yes, mistakes have been made. Serious mistakes.

EU president, Jean-Claude Juncker still does not see them. On Sunday, Juncker rebuked those attempting to use the attacks to change EU policy as populists who are improperly equating asylum-seekers with outlaws.

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